Valiant

No update for a while, I have been slowly pesting though.

Made some new motor mounts, connected the hand throttle and altered the factory muffler to clear the bonnet and look more tractoresque.

Annoyingly the motor was advertised as having a 1" crank with  1/4 keyway but it turned out to be 25mm with a 7mm keyway. No problem, I got the pulley re keyed and shimmed the difference in diameter with some coke can and lots of locktite. The pulley has provision for a grub screw to help hold it which I'll add when I find one.

I also turned up a cupped washer to stop the pulley wanderin.

I've used some bearings and another turned up washer to replace the missing belt tensioner.

They might fly to bits, time will tell.

So if I can get a new drive belt this week I should be able to go for a drive.

In other news I visited Dubious Dave today who had found more Pwer Pony parts.

Both belt guards which is super handy.  They'll need to be modified but it's better than making new ones.

Dave also came up trumps with a pair of mower decks.

One is stuffed but it has all the mechanical parts on it.

The other is in really good condition and appears to be compete. Perfect.

Shagged around with the yellow one over the weekend.

Instead of redrilling the hubs and swapping wheels I thought I'd give swapping tyres to rims a try. Used my improvised bead breaker, worked well, tyres swapped easily, no tube required.

Looks pretty sweet, chassis is pretty close to level. The drad link just catches the tyre on hard left lock. Maybe I'll put a little bend in the drag link, maybe I won't.

Then made a start on fitting the new motor.

Used my SnapOn harmonic balancer puller to get the multi belt pulley off the blue Pony. It put up quite a fight but the Snap-on puller is still undefeated. Dumbly my motor has a 25mm crank with a 7mm key, the pulley is 1" with 1/4 key way. I'll get the pulley re keyed and use shim steel/locktight to solve the diameter issues.

Anyway, enough worked to to mock the motor up with a basic jig. Looks pretty good, it has to sit alot further back in the chassis than the original because the Chonda isn't a vertical engine. I'll have to make a new exhaust up to clear the bonnet, and trim the side cover a little bit.

On with the pesting.

The blue one is a very early production one apparently.

This is evidenced by the bushed front wheels and chain steering.

Anyway one of the front stub axles is completely wrecked. It's been run dry with a stuffed bush for so long that it almost ate the end off the stub axle. I needed the most basic solution to make it work again.

That solution turned out to be turning up a replacement stub, making a crude jig based on the old stub, cut and weld.

Sweet.

on with the motor swap!

Pulsed mean AZ.

So far I have brought a pair of new front tyres that are a bit taller/wider than the original, I think I will redrill the front hubs and fit the ride on wheels and tyres. Failing that I'll see if I can put the larger tyres on the original wheels.

Lastly I need something to make this go. That's where the cheapest 15hp Chonda I could find on Trade Me comes into play. Hopefully I'll be able to make it all work, it's a long way from clearing the bonnet at the moment, I think a home made power pony spec exhaust and an air cleaner rework should solve the clearance issues. I'm tempted to paint the engine tinware brown to match the 70s styling. Time will tell.

My yellow one is the cooler of the two (in my opinion) it's tidier, more original, but mechanically less complete. It came with the remains of a 12hp Tecmseh ohv engine, the original I suspect. The front tyres are stuffed, a few covers and guards are missing but it's pretty much all there.

I think this one is Is a slightly later production it has quadrant steering, non cut out grille and front hubs/wheel bearings.

A friend of mine has had these lurking in the back of his shed for years, the shed got demolished recently and both of them were sitting in the yard. 

We made a deal, if I get the blue one going for him to use I can keep the yellow and brown one. Seemed like a sweet deal so they have both arrived at my place.

They blue one I think is an early production Power Pony, it has chain steering and bushed front wheels. Someone has fitted a 10hp Briggs and Stratton to it. We have a 11hp Honda to fit replace the B&S. It needs some new bushes in the front wheels, a good tidy up and we should be good to go.

2000e M8!

Alpha move there @cletus

Fails car, excessive noise.

Sells cat for $250.